: Souvenirs released in connection with special occasions such as jubilee celebrations of local churches are a great treasure of the history of a district, detailing the early years of settlement, life and struggle. It was this knowledge that went into the realisation of Idukki Shelf, separately arranged for the public in the library-cum-reading room at MES College, Nedumkandam.
The Idukki Shelf contains everything about the history of the district ranging from church souvenirs to the recently published books on the Western Ghats. Books on the early history of the district, evolution of places and their names, tribespeople and their lives and songs, documents relating to the Mullaperiyar agreement, the in-house publication of Tata Finlay Ltd , which traces the history of tea plantations in Munnar, are available here. “The collection is not complete and we are seeking more books, documents, features and photographs about the history of the district,” College Principal A.M. Rasheed says.
According to him, the evolution of a local place has an important role in making the district its present entity. This is now more in existence in the collective conscience than in written words. They should be documented for posterity, and a team has been working in this direction, he said.
River valley civilisation
Even before the present settlers reached the High Ranges, especially with the formation of Pattom Colony under the government initiative, a river valley civilisation had developed on which much studies had not been done. Some of the collections in the Idukki Shelf include doctorate studies on specific subjects. These are some of the works that went mostly unnoticed as it dealt within the parameters of research piece on a specified area. These doctorate thesis are placed for promoting further studies on specified areas as the district, he said.
There are only a few books on the cultural and social life of Anchunadu, which was one of the prominent places of international trade and culture in the pre-historic era. A large number of cave paintings spread over a wide area on the eastern part of the Western Ghats in the district are milestones of the prehistoric era. The college plans to collect more works on Anchunadu and it needed to be well analysed, he said. A team has been entrusted with the task of collection.
